TAMPA, Fla. — A Tampa man launched Sea Lime Lures from his garage and earned a patent for his water-channeled technology, which mimics the swimming action of fish, according to founder Clint Owens.

What You Need To Know

Sea Lime Lures uses patented water-channeled technology

Founder Clint Owner launched the business from his Tampa garage in 2016

Owens received a patent for the lure in 2021 on his first try 

Owens is working on new lures and hopes his story will inspire others with innovative ideas

“We channel the water through the inside, and that’s what generates the action,” he said. “Most lures, the lure kind of plows through the water.”

Owens said the idea came to him while he was at a stoplight in New York City and was watching a flag wave in the wind. At the time, he was working for an urban ministry and planning his family’s move back to Florida.

Owens launched Sea Lime Lures from his Tampa home in 2016 and spent countless hours using the pool as his testing laboratory.

“How do you channel the water through without it flipping over or coming out of the water or the body just blowing up?” he said. “So all of those things we had to kind of discover through trial and error. Thousands of iterations, thousands of hours of frustration.”

Owens said that all of his products are sourced and manufactured in Florida.

“For me, it’s key to be local. Most all of these parts I can drive to pick up,” he said. “Go to Brookesville for the heads. I go out near Orlando for the bodies. The weights are out of Miami.”

The innovative entrepreneur said he’s working on expanding his product line by creating lure bodies identical to fish patterns, which he plans to launch this spring. He wants to tap deeper into the Florida market, which is known as the fishing capital of the world.

According to the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, there are 4 million anglers in the state, and the economic impact of saltwater recreational fishing is $9.2 billion.

“We’re trying to grow it,” said Owens. “We have some other things coming up that are going to be really exciting.”

Owen’s wife, Bright, is proud of the family owned business they’ve built.

“It has been a journey,” she said. “But I’m excited for him, for our family, just for the industry to have this kind of a lure.”

Owens hopes his story will inspire others with innovative ideas to go for it.

“It’s just neat to see where we’ve come,” he said. “We still have so much more to do.”